The Indian sub-continent has a rich genetic diversity in aromatic plants. The aromatic grasses such as Cymbopogon and Vetiveria zizanoides have been used by man from ancient times both for medicine and perfumery. The genus Cymbopogon:, belonging to family Poaceae, is a rich source of aroma chemicals, especially terpenoids. These chemical compounds are present in varying concentrations in Cymbopogon and are used widely in perfumery, and in the flavor and pharmaceutical industries. There are up to 60 species of Cymbopogon native to the tropical and sub-tropical regions of Africa and Asia. See, Corrigan, D. (1992), “Adverse Effects on Herbal Drugs”, vol. I, Springler verlag, Berlin, pages 115-123. Out of 27 species available in India, mainly C. flexuosus, C. winterianus and C. martinii, var. ‘Motia’ have been exploited for commercial cultivation as a source of citral, citronellal and geraniol respectively. Cymbopogon commutatus is surviving in the sub-tropical environment of the Jammu District near R. S. Pura Tehsil, India. A massive collection of this plant was made in India during 1994.
The occurrence of Cymbopogon commutatus is reported in Sudan Banthorpe, D.V., Duprey, R. J. H., Hassan, M., Janes, J. F. and Modawi, B. M (1976) Planta Medica 29:10-19. Such plant also is present in Pakistan, Somalia, Tanzania, Iraq, and Northern India. See, Nasir, E. and Ali, S.I. (1982), “Flora of Pakistan—Poaceae”, No. 143, University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan.
India's share in land resources of the world is only 2% on which 18% of the world's population and 15% of the world's livestock survive. The geographical matrix of India based on the reported area of 305.01 million hectares is broadly grouped into three sectors—the agriculture sector (59.27%), the ecological sector (33.56%), and the non-agricultural sector (7.17%). See, Prasad, R. N. and Biswas, P.P. (2000), “Land resource in sustainable agricultural development—issues and strategies Indian Farming”, 49(11): Pages 9-13. Dryland agriculture in India is now practiced on 100 million hectares or 70% of the total arable land of 143.8 million ha. Crop production on these lands is dependent entirely on natural precipitation. This information suggests that there is need in India and elsewhere to develop an improved drought tolerant variety of C. commutatus. 
Present annual demand of geraniol in India stands at about 100 tonnes which is likely to increase during the coming years. In India the current production is only 50 tonnes/year. The geraniol containing oil can be used for imparting an aroma to the wide range of perfumery products.
The Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) technique has found wide use in molecular biology. Recent advances in PCR have made this technique one of the most powerful tools for a wide spectrum of molecular analyses, such as genome mapping. See, Benito C., Figueiras, A. M., Zaragoza, C.,Gallego, F. J., and De la Pena, A., (1993), Plant Mol. Biol., 21:181-183; molecular evolution, Brown, P. T. H., Lange, F. D., Kranz, E, and Lorz, H., (1993), Mol. Gen. Genet., 237:311-317; gene tagging; molecular taxonomy; diagnosis of genetic diseases, and forensic sciences, Erlich, H. A. D., Gelfand and J. J. Sninsky (1991), Science 252: 1643-1651. Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA profiling (RAPD) is one of the PCR techniques which is an amplification-based nucleic acid scanning technique driven by synthetic oligodeoxynucleotide primers of arbitrary sequence producing characteristics DNA fingerprints capable of detecting sequence polymorphism in anonymous nucleic acid templates. In this technique the amplification of genomic DNA using random short primers results in multiple amplification products representing amplicons randomly distributed throughout a genome which can be resolved by agarose gel electrophoresis and visualized by ethidium bromide staining.
The polymorphism obtained using RAPD results from point mutations, insertions, deletions, and inversions occuring in the respective genomes over time. These are usually dominant markers that are inherited in simple Mendelian fashion. No references, however, are known to exist on the RAPD analysis of Cymbopogons. The methodology used by D.Godwin, N.Sangduen, R.Kunanuvatchaidach, G.Piprridis, and S. W. Adkins (1996), Plant Cell Reports, 16: 320-324; Taku Ohmori, Minoru Murata and Fusao Motoyoshi (1995), Jpn. J. Genet. 70; 179-184; F. N. Wachira, R. Waugh, C. A.Hackett, and W. Powell (1994), Genome 38: 201-210, has been used for the present studies to further confirm the distinctiveness of the new variety of the present invention.
A well-established method of mass selection for developing an improved variety from the wild collection of Cymbopogon commutatus was initiated during 1994 and individual plant progenies were raised vegetatively by slips in a cultivated area tended by man.
Similar appearing uniform progenies having the desired phenotypic characters, e.g., an improved tiller character, high rate of tillerization, fresh herbage, essential oil content (%), and oil quality indices (ratio of geraniol/geranyl acetate to citral) were bulked for seed formation.
Seed raised progenies exhibited phenotypic variations. A single plant of desired characters ultimately was selected and was further multiplied vegetatively. This plant of the present invention was designated ‘RLJCC1’. Studies and selection were continued from 1995 to 1999 for the evaluation of essential oil quality stability (i.e., geraniol and geranyl acetate) and drought tolerance.
The primary object of the present invention was to develop new Cymbopogon commutatus variety capable of growing under natural drought conditions.
Another object of the present invention was to develop a new Cymbopogon commutatus variety whcih exhibits the presence of geraniol and geranyl acetate as major chemical constituents and having a low citral content for applications in the perfumery and flavor industries.
Yet another object of the present invention was to develop to a new Cymbopogon commutatus variety useful in the marginal as well as in waste lands for the production of geraniol and geranyl acetate as well as ocimene.